So They Met
by Kathryn Claire O'Connor
Summary: #4 in the Junior Initiative series! When Agent Maria Hill brings the Avengers to JID in the interest of keeping the JID teens safe, said teenagers have no choice but to meet their parents whether or not they want to. Secrets are revealed, both old and new wounds are reopened, and some things will have changed drastically by day's end. seven-shot, mild cursing. Pepperony, Clintasha
1. Chapter 1

**Here's the fourth installment in the Junior Initiative series! Enjoy! The first part in italics is the last bit of the previous story so that you know what's going on.**

* * *

_When the seven teens got back to the JID Building – exhausted and beaten despite having accomplished their first ever mission – they were instantly hit with another, even more overwhelming dilemma when Sid's voice met them while they were still outside the house._

_"Andy?"_

_"Yes, Sid?" the seventeen-year-old asked tiredly._

_"Dakota wishes for you and the all the others to go through the back entrance and meet her in the training level."_

_"Sid, why?"_

_"Agent Hill is here."_

_Andy snapped, "Sid, so what?"_

_"It appears that she has brought the Avengers as well."_

* * *

The exhausted teenagers looked around at one another in confusion as they stood on the grass outside the JID Building, and Andy in particular took to a loud string of vicious curses before asking, "Sid, what the h*** do you mean Maria brought the Avengers too?"

"Agent Hill got here exactly four minutes ago and the Avengers were with her. They are all presently combing the house for your sister, since Agent Hill knows she is still here. I believe they are about to expand their search to the outdoors, so I recommend following Dakota's request and sneaking into the training level through the back entrance before you are spotted. Dakota has locked the indoor entrance and had me shut down the elevator. She seems frightened."

"I'm sure she is," Andy muttered, fuming as he started with everyone else towards the mostly-forgotten outdoor entrance to the basement that was the training level. "The first time these super-freaks show up at our door, and it's got to be now. Where in the name of Odin's freaking grave were they two days ago before Fury dragged us through Asgard?"

"Maybe our being sent out on a mission is what prompted Maria to bring them here?" Ryan theorized, helping Andy pry open the protesting metal door.

"She never has much liked the idea of our being put in the line of fire like that," Hazel added.

Speculation was stopped for a minute when the teens entered the training level only to find that it appeared empty.

"Koty?" Andy called out in a stage whisper.

A strangled gasp came from under the desk of his tech center, and his sister darted out into the open, running up and squeezing the air out of him. He hissed as what he assumed was a bruised rib protested angrily to Dakota's actions. Andy, however, didn't care at the moment, and wrapped his arms around his half-sister all the same.

"Are you okay?" he asked in concern.

"Yeah," Dakota answered, nodding against his chest and holding up a handgun that she held.

Andy thought that maybe it was the one that she had taken from Scarlet a half a year ago, but he didn't ask. They had a much bigger thing to deal with for now.

"Are you guys okay?" Dakota returned the question, her blue eyes dark as they quickly scanned every inch of him.

"Minor bruises here and there and Blaine isn't talking about it," Andy answered lightly. "But all in all we actually got through it very easily. Somebody in that realm must like us."

"Oh my word!" At the mention of Blaine, Dakota suddenly shoved away from Andy and went to examine the sullen archer. She ran a hand along the blood that had spattered on his arm, asking, "What happened to you?"

He answered hollowly, "I killed Loki."

Eif, who had been examining her unfamiliar surroundings and companions with curiosity, suddenly turned fixated eyes onto Blaine, repeating slowly, "You… killed… Loki?"

Blaine nodded, his eyes caught somewhere between weary and wary as he realized that he was technically talking to the god's widow.

Eif's reaction surprised them all. "Best day ever!" she squealed, a grin splitting her face.

Beside Andy, Ryan choked on a laugh, but Andy was none too amused, unable to be sidetracked from the issue going on upstairs with the arrival of the Avengers. "Not really. Are you sure that it's the Avengers upstairs, Dakota?"

She nodded rapidly, staying glued to Blaine's side as she answered, "Look at the security cameras; I've got them up on the computer now."

Andy obliged her, and what he saw brought forth another string of curses. The six Avengers were indeed prowling around outside on their turf – literally – and now was just not the time for the JID kids to have to deal with that.

"Why are they here?" Scarlet ground out.

Andy looked around at the others then, noticing for the first time that they seemed as agitated at this new development as he was.

"From what I've managed to make out of their conversation," Dakota volunteered. "Maria finally brought up to them some of her concerns about what had been going on with us."

"You mean the entirety of our lives thus far?" Hayne asked, glaring at the computer screen from behind his glasses.

Andy took a nervous step away from the other boy, wondering if they might see a second visitation from his "friend" that day.

He sighed, suddenly realizing a couple of things. One: they couldn't hide out here forever. Despite the fact that the teens had locked the room tightly from the inside, he didn't doubt that an Avenger or two could easily get said door open if given a chance.

"Sid, lock every door in the house. I want Maria and the Avengers outside until I say so, do you understand? Don't obey any orders from Maria or the Avengers until I say so. Alright?"

"Both are done."

"Thanks, pal."

That led him to the second thing that needed to be addressed, an important question concerning it being: "Just how much did Maria tell the Avengers about us, Dakota?"

"She's not told them who's who, if that's what you mean; I think she might be a little afraid to. She told all of them that they each have at least one child in JID, but nothing else. But…" Dakota paused painfully. "Andy, I've been watching them on the security cameras. Mr. and Mrs. Stark are calling for me – my name specifically, even though Maria never gave out our names. They know I'm here; they've known the whole time, haven't they?"

Andy blew out a deep breath, praying that his little sister wouldn't hate him for withholding his knowledge of the situation as he answered, "Yeah, kiddo, they have."

"But not you?" she clarified.

"No," Andy shook his head. "I'm a product of one of Stark's flings in Mexico. Neither one of them know that I exist. None of them know that any of us exist, except for-"

"Blaine and Scarlet," Dakota cut in, taking Blaine's hand and leading him over to the monitors. "The Black Widow separated herself from the group, and she's been calling for them in particular too. But Hawkeye hasn't…"

Dakota and the others let the unspoken question hang in the air until Andy sighed again, caving in with an, "Okay, okay. Information overload time." He fired up another monitor and opened up each of their eight files, opening the holograms into the air behind him. "Here we go," he said, settling into his captain's chair and whirling so that he could face the holograms where they hung in the middle of the air. "First off, please promise that none of you are going to hurt me or hate me after this; we have to provide a united front once we let them back into the house." Seven hesitant nods later and Andy began his speech. "Alright, age before beauty. Ryan Rogers. You guys know most of this story by now, but what you may not know is that Steve Rogers – Captain America – had no idea that Lieutenant Carter had given him a child until Maria told him today." Andy pointed to the teens' respective profiles as he added, "And the same can be said for Thor, Dr. Banner, and, yes, even Clint Barton. Eif…" Andy paused, turning to face the quarter-goddess. "What kind of a name is Eif, anyway?"

"Nordic," she answered in confusion.

"It's awful. Can I call you 'Demi'? You know, because you're a demi-goddess? That's at least an acceptable name."

"As you wish…" Eif answered slowly.

"Great," Andy said with a nod. "Anyway, where was I?"

* * *

**Hopefully you guys enjoyed this! Reviews equal love and rainbows! Thanks, guys!:)**


	2. Chapter 2

"Thor?" Hazel reminded Andy impatiently.

"Oh, right. Now, Demi, I'm not sure how much you know about yourself since you just got here – sorry for the horrible welcome, by the way – so I'm just going to tell you the basics of what I know about you. You are, as I'm sure you know, the daughter of Thor. Your mother is astrophysicist, Dr. Jane Foster. She currently resides in Greenwich, England. When you were an infant, she beamed you up to Asgard, I guess to be put in your father's care… but the rest of that is history, right?

"Which brings us to the twins, Hayne and Hazel, again, Dr. Banner didn't know until today that he was a father, let alone to a pair of twins." Andy heard Hayne mutter something about Dr. Banner being no father either way, but he continued unphased. "Your mom is Dr. Betty Ross. She and Banner broke up not so amicably when the Hulk kind of wrecked their wedding, and when she figured out that you two shared Banner's abilities, she freaked out. Fury appeared a few months later, she gave you up to him pretty much without question, and the rest is, again, history.

And last but not least is Blaine and Scarlet. As I said before, until today, Barton had no idea that he had children." Andy turned to Dakota, a thought coming to mind. "When Maria admitted that each of the Avengers had kids here, did she happen to mention that Black Widow and Hawkeye had the same children?"

"No."

"So he's still oblivious to that part then… because," Andy turned back to the holograms, pulling up a file on the Black Widow. "Both times that she was expecting, she was conveniently given assignments in Oman until she gave birth, and then brought the baby – Blaine and Scarlet both – directly to S.H.I.E.L.D., and they were brought directly here to JID.

"And now that we know our back stories, what are we going to do about our friends outside?"

"We can't leave them out there all day," Ryan pointed out the obvious.

"Why not?" Blaine muttered.

"Because Maria will eventually say screw Sid and they'll break in – into the house and into the training level, if this is where we still are," Andy answered. "Look, they've got us backed into a corner right now. We've got to do something about it."

"It'd be eight against eight if we went at them," Blaine all but snarled.

"No," Ryan said flatly. "We're good, but we're not that good."

"He's right," Andy seconded.

Hazel argued, "But Pepper doesn't even know how to do anything! And you've got two 'other guys' to their one!"

"And our two together are still only equal to half of what Dr. Banner can do," Ryan reminded, arms crossed over his chest as he stared at the holograms.

"You know we could just try talking to them," Dakota spoke up softly.

Scarlet snorted. "This from the girl who was curled up under a desk with my gun behind locked doors?"

"Because you guys weren't here!" Dakota snapped at her.

Ryan intervened with, "Think about it, guys. If Maria told the Avengers anything about what's been going on here – some of those things that have happened to us? Look at the Starks. They're a mess, and Black Widow's on edge, and Dr. Banner hasn't stopped wringing his hands – I'd best since they pulled up, right, Dakota? They're all wrecked right now."

"So are we," Hayne said, looking around at the battle-weary group.

"But even wrecked, we're together; we're a team," Ryan persisted. "If Banner looses it, if the Starks – particularly Mrs. Stark – find out that Mr. Stark has an illegitimate son, if Hawkeye finds out that the Widow's been hiding his own children's existence from him, they're going to fall apart as a team. Maria's first priority has to be keeping the current Avengers together before taking care of the upstart ones, right? So if she is put in a position to be distracted with the adults, she leaves us alone."

"A house divided against itself…" Scarlet murmured.

Eif, who had been standing silently without saying a word, got a confused look on her already thoughtful face and asked, "This Maria is worried about you living here? Why?"

"Fury," Andy started, and then seemed to come to a loss of words for once.

"He's a bit of a loose cannon where we're concerned," Hayne said.

Hazel further added, "No adults are really consistently around here, so he tends to… get a little out of control with how he handles us sometimes."

"He hurts you?" Eif asked, cocking her head to the side.

The others all slowly nodded.

Eif bit her lip, asking, "Would Maria introduce you to the Avengers if she thought they would hurt you?"

"I don't think so," Ryan answered after a pause.

Eif turned to him then, and he suddenly realized exactly what she was thinking as she asked him, "Then isn't it like what you told me back on Asgard? If you stay here in your seclusion, you all know that Fury will continue to hurt you, but if you let the Avengers get involved, it seems that would add a layer of protection to your existence, doesn't it? At least 'a chance to be safe'? If they care at all about their children, after finding out what the director's done in the past, they'd keep an eye on him in the future, right?"

"Maybe," Hayne admitted.

"So maybe you all get what you want; Fury is kept better in check and we stay here still by ourselves. Couldn't that be how it works?"

Ryan repeated Hayne's earlier, wary statement, "Maybe."

"So don't you have to take that chance then?" Eif asked.

Hazel was the first to speak, saying with a sigh, "She's right. We do have to; if not for ourselves then for each other. After this 'mark' thing with Blaine and Dakota, there's no telling how bad he could get if still left alone with us."

"But we are obviously capable of fighting back," Andy argued.

Hazel looked him evenly in the eye, saying, "But we'd be even safer if we had the Avengers on our side. Right now, Fury's the one with access to them, not us, and that's not going to change unless we meet them. We have to at least do that much, Andy. They're here for a reason, and if that reason is to help us, then we'd be stupid to pass that up; all of us can admit that, right?"

Casting her gaze around the group, Hazel saw them all nod reluctantly, slowly coming to a group decision.

"Fine," Andy said sourly, the last one to give in. "But if we're going to do this, we need to find a way to have one up on them."


	3. Chapter 3

"Not possible," Dakota answered instantly. "They're the Avengers; we're just JID."

"Well, maybe we could use that," Ryan suggested thoughtfully.

They all looked at him, and Blaine asked, "What do you mean?"

"Let's assume that they are here to meet us, get to know us, or are concerned over something that Maria's told them – whichever. They can't get to know us if we refuse to talk, even though we know a lot about them, right? It's not much, no, but if worse comes to worst and need be, we could confuse them with it. If they don't know who's who, they don't know which of us can do what, should we end up needing to fight them for some reason. And our refusing to give out our names is one way of showing them that we don't like them."

"So we're just going to be 'hey, boy, yeah you' the whole time they're here, however long that is?" Blaine asked skeptically.

"We could assign ourselves a number," Dakota suggested practically.

"Okay," Hayne said, "Even if that does work, what about Maria? She's on their side right now; she wouldn't let us try to confuse them, not when she wants to sort this whole thing out."

Andy narrowed his eyes, thinking before he said thoughtfully, "Let me handle Maria."

"Why?" Dakota asked. "What do you know this time that we don't?"

"If I told you, the information wouldn't be any good," Andy said evenly, standing from his chair as he asked with false cheer, "Now, who's ready to go meet the 'rents? On second thought, stay here for a minute. Let me go talk to Maria for a second, and then I'll let you guys know when it's safe to come out."

"Just… don't be stupid, okay?" Hazel said.

"When have you ever known me to be stupid?" Andy asked with a smirk.

"Yesterday," Ryan said.

Hayne added, "Day before that."

Scarlet smirked, and Andy cut her off before she, too, could add her two cents. "Alright, I get it. I'll be careful; no interaction with the Avengers until my team is with me."

"Thank you," Hazel said, giving him a tight smile.

"We'll stay in here and clean ourselves up," Ryan said. "But if you aren't back in here within ten minutes, I'm coming out."

"_Jawohl, Kapitän_!"

Ryan rolled his eyes. "I'm not German, I'm British, so stop it."

"A British Captain America is just as bad as a German one nowadays, private."

"I am not Captain America, either."

Andy rolled his eyes. "Close enough."

"What happened to our united front, guys?" Dakota asked sternly. "Andy, if you have a plan, quit stalling and go do it."

Andy nodded briskly, squared his shoulders and strode towards the door. The metal squealed its resistance once again as the door slowly opened, garnering the attention of every one of the adults that had come to stand nearby.

"Hey, folks," Andy said, shoving one hand in his jeans pocket and waving with the other as he took a few steps away from the building. "You don't mind if I talk to Maria for a second, do you?"

He bit back a smile when Steve Rogers took a half-step towards the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, which was all the verification he needed of his being correct on his findings. Maria obligingly stepped up to him, and he guided her out of hearing distance before he stated his case.

"Okay," he started in a stage whisper. "You majorly overstepped boundaries bringing them here out of the blue."

"The director doesn't know they're here; I had to act fast and without his permission if I wanted to get you guys safe."

Andy snorted. "Because the Hulk is safe?"

"Maybe not, but Dr. Banner is one of the best people I've ever met."

Andy inquired sweetly, "Better than Captain America?"

"What do you mean?" Maria asked, stiffening noticeably.

"You're dating him." Andy paused before throwing another thing out there. "But you have done worse. I mean, sleeping with a married man – with Fury? Not cool, Maria, no matter how long ago it happened."

"What do you want?" she asked fiercely, her eyes darkening with anger.

"You keep your mouth shut, let us say anything we want to, don't try to get us to say things we don't want to, and I keep my mouth shut about your personal life. Deal?"

"Fine," Maria all but snarled.

Tomorrow, Andy figured he was going to regret hurting her and saying what he had, but right now he had to look out for his team, and he had very little to do it with save for blackmail. That he had a virtual abundance of.

"Great," Andy smiled like what he had just said wasn't already twinging at his conscience and walked back into the training center.

"We good?" Blaine asked, seeing him first.

Andy nodded. "I think so. Maria's not going to say anything when we go out there, anyway."

"That might give us an inch to run with," Hazel said. "Maybe."

"Well, we were blindsided," Ryan replied. "There's not really any way that we can start out with the upper hand here, is there?"

"If we take this inside, Sid only answers to us, so the house would be under our control," Andy suggested.

"So we've got an agent's silence and a house," Blaine said with a roll of his eyes. "That's just great."

"Hey," Dakota spoke up, "At least you guys are looking better."

And they were. Sans Andy, they were all scrubbing off the dust and sweat – and in Blaine's case, blood – and changing clothes. Even Demi was wearing "Midgardian" clothes now. Nondescript clothes. Blaine and Scarlet weren't wearing their normal uniform of black on black – holy smokes! – Scarlet was actually wearing one of Dakota's _sundresses_. Ryan had commandeered one of Andy's own jean and t-shirt ensembles instead of his normal camouflage.

"What's the point with the clothes?" Andy asked.

"To blend in with each other," Scarlet said. "It was Ryan's idea."

"Black is Hawkeye and Black Widow's color, and it might clue them in to who's who if their children are wearing it." Ryan explained.

Andy asked, "What's your excuse?"

"Camouflage is army colors. Maybe I'm being a little paranoid, but-"

"It's fine," Andy said easily, accepting the change of clothes that his sister handed him.

Five minutes later, the teens were all cleaned up and had made their way to the main level of the house. Andy watched the others settle into various spots in the entertainment room and then went to get the adults from where they were still barricaded into the outdoors, requesting, "Sid, unlock the doors."

Here went nothing.


	4. Chapter 4

Dr. Bruce Banner had told Natasha once that the secret to keeping 'the other guy' at bay was not, in fact, avoiding stress, but when a situation like this came up, he did still tried to avoid it. If – like in this case – a distress call came up that he couldn't avoid, he at least tried on stay to the fringe of it, which was usually accomplished by keeping his mouth shut while the others ran theirs. In keeping his mouth shut, he had learned the usefulness of keeping his eyes open a little wider. Generally, he didn't say much anyway, but he was a very observant man.

Observation one had been the very state of the art security systems that were all over this place. It sure seemed like somebody valued these kids – Fury, more than likely, if what Agent Hill had told them was correct.

Observation two: these kids – whether or not they were in fact the biological children of the Avengers – did not like them for one reason or another. Why else would the one girl who was supposed to be here go into hiding?

Observation three: the house did have an AI, and while it didn't seem to be half as intricate as Jarvis, it was still there. Because of that, Bruce was willing to bet money that Tony had a kid here. Well, because of the AI and the fact that Tony and Pepper really did look like someone's concerned parents right now. After Maria's telling the Avengers that Fury had sent six teenagers out on a mission against Loki, even Bruce was concerned for them, and he didn't know if any of them were even his kids. God forbid it; nobody needed his gene pool in their body.

Observation four: The boy who had come out and talked to Agent Hill for a minute had been about seventeen years old and Bruce wanted to say bi-cultural as well. Latin American something, he thought. The teen had obviously threatened Agent Hill with something, and Bruce wanted to dislike him for it, but the very way the kid had carried himself had reminded Bruce of his best friend – and that had served to put him all the more on edge. What if the kids they were about to meet really were their offspring? Surely not any of them were his though… They couldn't be.

_Not every time do I get what I want…_

Observation five: the kid who had talked to Agent Hill appeared to be the leader of the eight. If Fury wanted a second generation of the Avengers, could that be another sign that this boy was Tony's?

A few minutes after the Latino went back inside; he came back into the outdoors from around the front of the house and called out to them, "Are you guys coming inside, or what?"

"Can we get in now?" Tony snapped, heading up the Avengers' group as they went towards the house.

"Sure," the boy answered with a shrug of his shoulders. "Couldn't you before?"

"You ha-" Maria started, but a sharp look from the boy made her clench her jaw shut even though her eyes still flashed.

"You locked us out," Thor said.

"Did not," the boy said flippantly, turning on his heel to lead them up the hill to the house's front door. "It wasn't technically me, anyway. This house is big; even the eight of us on my team working together couldn't lock _all _the doors in time to keep you out."

"Eight of you?" Steve repeated.

The boy nodded as he ushered them into the room where the teens were already gathered. "And Fury despises us so much that he hasn't even named a one of us. We're just numbered."

Bruce raised his eyebrows as Clint smirked, repeating, "Numbered?"

"Uh-huh." The boy nodded cheerfully. "I'm One." He pointed to another boy, this one with dark blonde hair and blue eyes. "That's Two."

"That's me," the other boy seconded, but there was a bit of a snap in his eyes as he said while looking at the Latino, "I'm number two."

Just the way the two teenagers were acting around one another made Bruce think that this "number two" had to be a relative of Steve's, but how could that be…

"So who's Three?" Clint asked dryly.

"Three and Four, our twins," "One" said, nodding towards a couple of kids. The girl, "Four," was sitting on the couch chewing on her lip, and the boy with glasses, "Three," was openly pacing against one wall while ringing his hands and refusing to look at the adults in the room. Bruce felt horror swell up inside of him as he took in those achingly familiar movements. No way! Not possible! But then he did some math and it hit him. Seventeen years ago, he had still been trying to find a way to make the "other guy" coexist with his being in a relationship with Dr. Betty Ross. It was possible that she had conceived and just not told him… The "other guy" stirred inside of him, but Bruce took a deep breath and shoved him away in time to hear "One" continue.

"This is Five."

"One" gestured to another teenage boy, this one with spiky light brown hair who was sitting rigidly on a couch, his eyes simultaneously dark and dull as he took the adults in suspiciously.

"One" nodded to a girl with hair so blonde that the gene for it had to have come from Thor. "Six."

"And that's Seven."

Standing at the back of the group, Bruce noticed the exact moment when Natasha stiffened. The girl's auburn hair was a perfect match for Natasha's and there was no denying it. What must it be like for the assassin to see her child again after so many years, after having lived for so long without them, and knowing that they had no memory of her? That had to be hard.

"Scarlet?" Natasha whispered, nearly under her breath.

Tony surveyed the other three girls carefully through narrowed eyes before his gaze settled on the girl who would be "Eight," and he declared, "That means that you're Dakota."

"Who's that?" the girl asked in a very measured tone.

And then Tony and the girl rolled their eyes practically in sync.


	5. Chapter 5

"Don't play this game," Tony snapped at her.

"You think our lives are a game?" The obnoxious boy who had led them into the house all but snarled, stepping up to put a protective hand on the girl's shoulder.

The other teenagers shifted, ready to launch themselves at the Avengers at a word from their apparent leader, and Tony really didn't want to have to deal with that today, nor did he particularly want to see what these guys were capable of.

Apparently Pepper didn't want that either, because she stepped between Tony and the two teenagers, saying gently, "Do you want to know who Dakota is?"

The girl with strawberry blonde hair raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms, the very picture of defiance. "Who?"

"She's my daughter," Pepper murmured with tears in her eyes. "She's the daughter that I think about every day; the daughter that Tony and I gave up only because we were led to believe that would be the safest thing for her. We gave custody of her over to Agent Hill because we thought she was in danger living with us; we did it because we _love her_."

"Custody?" the girl – it had to be Dakota– looked to Agent Hill and asked a little sharply.

Agent Hill nodded once, her eyes turbulent despite her sure stance.

Dakota laughed dryly. "Yeah, she's been a great mother-figure, especially about… How long has it been, Maria? Six months?"

Agent Hill nodded, the sarcasm in the girl's voice apparently bothering the agent.

"Six months," Dakota added. "Three days, ah…" she glanced at a clock. "Seven hours, nineteen minutes."

"Why?" Pepper asked, looking with worry between Dakota and Agent Hill. "What happened?"

"Someone was supposed to kill her," a new voice spoke up, a voice that sounded both at once as sharp and as flat as the owner of said voice looked. "Five."

"Well, she's obviously still alive," Clint said, his eyes narrowing at the boy as he spoke past Pepper's sudden, ragged breath.

Tony's own breathing hitched and his vision got a little fuzzy for a second as "Two" said, "And that's when this stupid mission business got started."

"No, actually," "One" corrected. "That's when I told you guys about it. Missions had been Fury's endgame all along."

"Even when you were infants?" Natasha asked, getting a dangerous glint in her eyes.

"Yeah, from what I can find."

"So he did lie to us," Pepper said, looking at Tony.

"Of course he did," the billionaire ground out. "He wouldn't be Fury if he hadn't." Tony turned to Agent Hill then, asking, "How about you? Did you lie to us?"

"No," Agent Hill answered slowly. "I just… didn't tell you."

"Until umpteen years later," Tony said in frustration. "That's just great."

"Oh," "One" spoke up again, feigning helpfulness. "I can bet she still hasn't told you everything yet."

"Like what?" Tony asked.

The boy sighed, seeming to run through answers in his head before he said flippantly, "Ice, experiments, genes, electrocution, marks, marriages, abuse, abandonment… Where would you like to begin?"

"Wait, wait, wait," Tony ordered. "Slow down. 'Abandonment' I get. As your parents, we're the bad guys who got you here-"

"Well, yes, but that's actually not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?" Pepper asked.

"Please tell me that Agent Hill has told you that there's no longer an adult living here."

"She did no such thing," Pepper replied, turning to glare at the agent in question.

"Yeah," "One" shrugged, saying in his same devil may care tone. "I basically run the house."

With her back still turned to "One" and the rest of her housemates, Dakota rolled her eyes affectionately – the force of sheer habit, Tony thought – and Pepper almost laughed aloud… for some reason, not that Tony knew what it was.

"What about all of those other things?" Tony asked. "Ice, electrocution…?"

"One" sighed heavily and gestured to the seats around him. "You're obviously not going away, so you might as well settle in; this is going to a long conversation."

The adults obliged and Tony had to fight not to drag Dakota over to sit down between him and Pepper. He finally had her back and he wanted her beside him, but he knew better than to try it – not in front of all of her friends.

"Where do you want to start?" "One" asked obligingly.

A thought struck Tony, and he voiced it before anyone else could speak up. "How about with how you seem to know all of this, 'One.'" The boy looked at Tony, but didn't say anything, so Tony explained further. "Somebody in this house has been hacking into my system for years. The first time they did, I was fit to destroy their technological existence – until I saw their hacker handle. 'Stark Contrast.' I traced the IP address, which of course, led me to this address, so – since they weren't actually doing anything to harm my systems – I assumed it was Dakota and let it go. I even thought that little connection with her was kind of cool – but it wasn't her, it was you, wasn't it?"

The boy ran his tongue over his teeth, saying with his tone full of spite, "Look who's earned his genius badge today."

"Just know you're not as slick as you think you are, kid; if I had known it wasn't my own kid, I would've shut you down a long time ago."

The boy's eyes filled with a sudden fire as his hands fisted at his sides.

"Tony," Bruce spoke up from across the room, just barely shaking his head.

"Believe me, you don't know a lot of things, Anthony Edward Stark," the boy said, everything about him suddenly filled with the slow deliberation of a man ready to kill another person.

"Like what?" Tony asked, trying his best not to show that he was tempted to shrink away from the kid, seeing as he had no suit here with him.

"Does the name Rosa Veracruz mean anything to you, Mr. Stark?" the boy asked.

"No. Should it?"

"You know what?" The boy turned to "Two" then, saying, "I can't right now. I just… you gotta give me a second here or I'm going to do something dumb like kill the head of a multi-billion dollar company. Or – as is more likely – set off his bodyguard."

"Two" got a look of confusion on his face, not understanding.

"Banner," "Three" croaked from the corner, where he was still pacing.

"Yeah," "Five" snorted. "Like Banner's the only thing in this place that's ready to explode?"


	6. Chapter 6

"You know," Steve suggested. "If you want to defuse this situation a little, giving us your real names might be a good start, even just first names."

Steve saw the teenagers look at one another, and he noticed particular distress in the faces of the girl with auburn hair and – if he didn't miss his mark – the boy who was calling himself "Five." Yet they seemed to come to a nearly unanimous decision – the boy "Two" had a bit of a stare down with "Five" before the latter agreed.

The youngest girl spoke first, admitting, "Yeah, I'm Dakota."

"And I am Scarlet," came next.

"My name's Ryan," "Two" said.

"I'm Andy," "One" admitted.

"I'm Hazel."

"Hayne."

When Andy saw the blonde girl was about to open her mouth, he said hastily, pointing to the girl in question, "She's Demi."

"Why do I get the feeling that's not her real name?" Bruce asked.

Andy paused, but his answer seemed to be honest when he said, "It's a nickname. Her real name gives her biology away."

"What about you?" Steve asked "Five," trying to present himself as a friend.

"Blaine," the boy growled. "And don't anybody get emotional over me because I've had a very bad day, and I might just be in the mood to gouge your eye out for it."

Natasha half snorted, half laughed, and Steve realized that the master assassin was on the verge of tears as she muttered, "You sound like your father."

"Who is my father, exactly, Agent Romanoff?" Blaine asked, looking at her with sudden, almost vicious interest.

Natasha paled, suddenly getting awfully solemn.

Blaine stood up, slowly making his way towards the redhead as he spoke, "See, Agent Romanoff, remind me now: what's the first rule of interrogation? Isn't it 'never ask a question you don't already know the answer to'?"

Natasha sucked in a deep breath, and Steve saw her barely, just barely glance at Clint. Steve's own eyes flew to Maria, who was still standing silently in a corner, the question brimming in his eyes. She nodded – also just barely a movement – and Steve stifled a groan, realizing that Clint had no idea.

"Listen," Natasha began softly. "I know I screwed up-"

"-Twice-"

"I made a mistake in not telling him then-"

"-And every day after then-"

"-But our relationship was very different then."

"'Love is for children; I owe him a debt.'" The words were softly spoken by Demi, and they froze Natasha in her tracks, mouth open mid-sentence.

"Where did you hear that?" Natasha asked her quietly.

"From my guardian. He was very proud of the fact that he made you cry."

"I didn't cry; it was an interrogation tactic. Agents don't cry."

Blaine snorted before saying angrily, "But their daughters do. And you know what? When their sons are asked to ki-"

"Don't," Dakota said, suddenly jumping towards him and laying a gentle hand on his arm. "Don't, Blaine. Don't try and slam them with guilt for what Fury did. It's fine, we're fine, and you know what? You use it right, and your actions from today could really give you a leg up with these people."

"What?" Blaine asked, jerking away from her. "The fact that I killed a man?"

"He wasn't a man," Demi said, not fiercely, but obviously meaning every word.

"No, he was a g-"

Demi stepped towards him, saying, this time with as much ferocity as ever, "He was a _monster_!"

"You know," Maria's voice startled them all. "I know I'm supposed to keep my nose out of it, but can I say this? The Avengers are called what they are for a reason. Their job is to avenge good people, and, Blaine, you did that today."

"Doesn't make it easy," Clint said gruffly before turning to Blaine and asking, "Does it help to know that it gets easier?"

"Not at all."

"Wait a second," Pepper said, rubbing her temples as she brought them back to point. "Fury made you kill someone?"

"He's given me a couple of marks, yeah, but I've only killed the one guy today."

"Do we want to know who he was?" Tony asked.

"All you need to know for now is that he was a bad guy," Andy declared.

"If Fury's asking kids to kill," Steve said warily, "What else has he done to you guys? Agent Hill didn't say much, but she says you need out. Why?"

"For example," Ryan said. "Because he kept me on ice for years after I was dug up from beside my father." Steve's eyes widened, but before he could ask any questions of… his son... Ryan added, "It's a long story; I can explain it to you later."

"He may or may not have made a walking lab experiment out of me," Andy muttered.

Hayne rolled his eyes when he realized that it was his time to speak and chose to say bluntly, "He's afraid of me."

"I was the electrocution case," Hazel confessed.

"Why?" Dr. Banner asked.

"Because he wanted to make me stronger, and he and his goony doctor didn't understand it doesn't work that way. Moving right along. Blaine?"

"He tried to get me to kill someone very close to me."

"I just got here," Demi said with a shrug.

"She was a child bride in an abusive marriage, and Fury left her with that man for the entirety of her life until we came along on our rescue mission," Ryan supplied.

Scarlet said, "You know… I think that by default, he's become afraid to hurt me."

"Why?" Natasha asked.

"Because of the information that Maria leaks to him. My boyfriend is capable of making a very big mess of his brain matter."

"Sounds like you're all capable of that," Clint muttered. "Except for maybe Dakota. You seem kinda harmless."

Blaine shook his head. "She's not harmless. She knows how to fight and she's got a gun on her right now. Looks are very deceiving."

Dakota sighed dramatically, saying, "And I guess our tale of basic woes can end with my saying – again – that Fury tried to have me killed for no real reason on my part, except for that he viewed me as the most disposable one in JID."

"And that's just the _basics _of what you guys have been through?" Tony double-checked.

"The main points," Andy said simply.

"Well, that's enough for me," Tony replied before turning to Maria. "Agent Hill, how many of these children are actually your legal wards?"

"Just Dakota."

"Are there any of whom Fury holds guardianship?"

"No; most of them aren't officially ours."

"So they're all free to go with a parent if they want?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"You cannot legally keep them here because – legally speaking – they are not here at all, am I right?"

"Yes," Maria said, shifting uncomfortably. "All except for Dakota."

"And I will use every last penny of my fortune to make sure Pepper and I are her guardians again if that's what it takes. I don't suggest that, though; I might suddenly get a taste for spilling my guts to the press – and maybe even the president. As it is, every one of these kids is going back to Avengers tower with us today, Fury be damned."

Steve saw that Maria was trying to decide whether she should be smiling at Tony or fighting him for the kids, but in the end she only nodded and said, "I'll see to it that you have full guardianship of your daughter by morning on the condition that Fury doesn't find out that I brought you here."

Tony nodded very seriously, speaking for the entire team as he said, "Done."


	7. Chapter 7

"Okay, guys," Pepper said as the teenagers piled into Avengers Tower behind he and the Avengers late that night. "I know that New York City is a big change from Vermillion, that you're used to your independence, and that you probably don't trust any of us adults, but you will find that there are perks to living here. For example, we have more than enough bedrooms for you each to have your own. You can go ahead and pick whatever room you want; if someone is already there, you'll know by the mess they leave."

"You guys would like the seventh floor of the Avenger's part of this place, I bet," Tony volunteered as he walked up to the group. "There are only eight suites, but they're all empty; you guys would essentially have your own floor."

That's all the kids needed to hear before they were loading themselves onto the elevator with the few things that they had packed from the Junior Initiative Division and disappearing.

"Meeting in the entertainment room," Tony ordered flatly as the rest of his team trickled into the tower around him. "Now."

They went without a word and the seven of them fell onto various places around the room.

Steve was the first to speak. "What the heck just happened today?" he asked, raking a hand tiredly through his hair.

"We may have just unearthed one of Fury's most closely guarded dirty little secrets," Tony answered, feeling the very last ounce of adrenaline that was in his body take it's leave.

"We can't make their moving here about whatever happened back there," Bruce said after a pause. "We have to get them to move past it, to make normal lives here."

"Normal lives?" Natasha snorted. "You heard them; Blaine's killed somebody, and there's no such thing as normal after that."

"Then we need to help them find a new normal," Bruce amended.

"That's going to start with figuring out which kids belong to whom, I'd think," Clint said.

"Not necessarily," Pepper said. "It takes a village to raise a child; we've all got to be there for every child."

"She's right," Tony said. "I've got a feeling they may not be immediately comfortable talking with their parents, but it would be a good idea if they knew that they had an adult willing to listen to them at all times, no matter if that adult is their parents or not."

"Okay, but for curiosity's sake, do we have any idea who belongs to who?"

Natasha spoke up from beside him, admitting in a voice so soft that only her husband could hear, "Blaine and Scarlet are yours and mine."

Clint blinked rapidly a few times, trying not to show the spike of anger that rushed through him. How could his wife not tell him that they'd had two kids together! "What about the others?" he asked after another pause.

"Dakota is obviously mine and Pepper's," Tony said.

"Ryan said a couple of things today that makes me think he's mine," Steve spoke up. "Although I have no idea how…"

"He said in front of all of us that he'd been put in the ice beside you," Bruce reminded him.

"There's a story there, I suspect," Thor mused.

"There has to be," Steve agreed.

Bruce said then, "But we need to let them get settled in before we start prying into their lives. On my front, my best guess would be that the twins are mine."

"That was pretty obvious by the way they were ringing their hands the whole day," Tony said.

"Yeah." Bruce asked, "Well, what about Andy?"

"What about him?"

"He's yours too, Tony," Pepper said softly. "Not mine, but yours."

"Maybe the Rosa Veracruz that he mentioned is his mother?" Steve suggested, looking at Tony like that should mean something.

Tony maintained, "I still don't know who that is."

"That doesn't necessarily mean anything, honey," Pepper said gently. "You were a wild cannon at the time that he would've been conceived. It could've just happened and Fury managed to get his hands on him. Simple as that."

"And you won't hate me, if that's what it is?" Tony asked her worriedly.

Pepper kissed him, smiling sweetly as she assured him, "No."

"That leaves Demi as my daughter," Thor realized.

"Can I be the person who brings up the scary parts that I'm pretty sure we heard earlier while talking with them?" Natasha asked. "If Demi's guardian was telling her about the interrogation that she quoted from… that was an interrogation I did with Loki."

Every person in the room froze.

Clint spoke slowly. "You think that Loki was her guardian?"

"It had to have been him from what she said."

Murmurs rippled through the crowd, but Tony was a step ahead of them, piecing together the other parts of the conversation that they'd been a part of. "But the others had just rescued her from an abusive marriage, they said – that part doesn't fit with any theories that I can come up with. Here's a different theory about a couple of the others. Blaine said that Fury had tried to get him to kill someone close to him; Dakota said that Fury tried to have her killed. They have to have lived a very sheltered life for no one to have found out about them, and those two coinciding stories are too close to be a coincidence."

"You think Fury tried to get Blaine to kill your daughter?" Natasha asked.

"It makes sense, doesn't it?" Tony asked, wishing that he was wrong even though they all knew he wasn't.

"What do you want to bet they're dating, just by what their interactions were today?" Pepper asked.

Tony growled at the idea, but Natasha answered, "Considering that Fury wanted them to be another generation of us? It makes sense."

"Bottom line," Clint said. "These kids have got to be really messed up."

"No," Pepper corrected. "The bottom line is that they need help, and as their parents, it's our job to provide that help."

* * *

**Here we are at the end of another Junior Initiative story. The sequel, "So They Healed," or one of my other stand-alone fics should be posted soon, so stay on the lookout. Reviews equal love and rainbows! Thanks, guys!:)**


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